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Author Archives: energyprbe
Hampton going down wrong road
Wawa: Veteran Queen’s Park reporters admit, shame-faced, how they helped to elect Bob Rae in 1990 by completely ignoring him.
Rae didn’t even unveil his platform until two weeks into the campaign, and it was only in its dying days that it became clear he was likely to unseat David Peterson.
And so to Wawa, in the shadow of its giant Canada goose, to ensure that Howard Hampton does not fly under the media radar screen straight into power.
Keeping the streets from going dark
Liberal power policy is focused on conservation, closing coal-fired plants; platform couched in environmental terms.
Since last month’s blackout, keeping Ontario’s lights on has become much more than a simple metaphor for the province’s electricity policy.
As the party leading the polls in the current provincial election campaign, how would the Liberals maintain a steady supply of power at reasonable prices?
How did we get into this mess?
Ontario has an electricity crisis – shortages, reliability problems, and potential loss of affordable rates. Government initiatives to restructure Ontario Hydro, deregulate the electricity market, and sell off the assets of Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One have proven to be unworkable and unpopular.
Ontario still short of power
Ontario’s power supply is improving, but the province still needs more electricity generating capacity, says the agency that oversees Ontario’s electricity system.
Even if mothballed nuclear plants return to service as expected over the coming months, the province will be short of the power needed to provide for the normal safety margins this fall, says the Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO).
When Ontario is short of power, it must import supplies from its neighbours.
Parties' policies on power panned
Ontario is on the verge of a provincewide power blackout daily, an energy expert says. With Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals vowing to maintain a Conservative freeze on power rates, that situation doesn’t look any brighter, said Tom Adams of Energy Probe.
"It’s very gloomy," said Adams. "None of the parties offers a viable program to stabilize Ontario’s hydro.
"And we can barely keep the lights on now."
McGuinty touts spending on electricity generation
Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. and Toronto: Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty says the province will have to borrow the money to build new electricity-generating plants, an ambitious proposal that could cost billions of dollars.
Mr. McGuinty said the investment would be needed to avoid a repetition of the massive power blackout of Aug. 14, and the lengthy delay in restoring the electricity system.
McGuinty on Hydro: Connect these power lines
The fact is . . .
"Mr. McGuinty has said little about Ontario’s electricity problems since the campaign began." – The National Post, September 30
So how come . . .
"Departing from past Liberal policy on electricity . . ."
– The Globe and Mail, September 30
. . . Dalton announces billions in new Hydro spending.
Even though . . .
Power will be McGuinty's real issue
Will he or won’t he? Run a deficit, that is.
Dalton McGuinty has yet to take over the machinery of the Ontario government, but already there’s a controversy about what he will do if, as expected, the province’s accounts are a mess. The Liberals have been planning for a $2-billion deficit on a $70-billion budget but we are getting nudge-nudges that it’s much worse than that.
Business cut back most on power use in blackout
Evidence suggests that the province’s biggest industries, plus Toronto’s big commercial customers, accounted for more than 70 per cent of the conservation efforts following the blackout that staggered northeastern North America last August.
Householders may have chipped in less than 25 per cent of the conservation effort.
Households account for more than 40 per cent of the province’s power use.
Energy Probe 